Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-07-27
The Mixed.schooi Article.

The article on the subject of mixed
schools which has created more sur
prise against Mr.. Blair than anything
he ever wrote, appeared, az did the
whole of the series, in the New York
HdepCndcnt. 1t begins with some
figures from the census reports con
cerning illiteracy in the South, and
goes Oh to say:
The proportion Of children likely to
attend school does not exceed twenty
per cent of the whole population, and
the school attendance does not exceed
sixty per cent. of enrolment and APP
plying this calculation it is found that
in order to have an average school OF
thirty white scholars, which would be
an enrolment OF fifty, twelve square
miles would be required i'll Virginia,
and nine square miles in Tennessee,
the two most populous States. The
Empire State, Georgia, would require
eighteen square miles, and Louisiana,
Arkansas, and Mississippi fifty square
miles each. While these would be the
averages there would be many parts
of all the States that ouldrequire very
much more territory to support a school
of thirty pupils. On the average terri
torial basis of the three last States
Rhode Island would have only fifty
schools and Massachusetts, only 333
schools.
From this short survey we can see
the almost impossibility of procuring
good white schools in the South except
in our few cities and larger towns, for
good schools can be made only by good
teachers, and good teachers can be OBJ
tanned only by good pay, and good pay
can be gotten only by full supply Of
children, and good supply of children
can bo furnished only by a population
much more dense than at present is
found in the South. 1t is not, there
fore, difficult to see that good whits
schools are, with few exceptions, I'M
possible in the South. That we did not
have them up to 1880 is shown by the
census, which reports l, l7S, ,O45 white
persons above ten years of age unable
to write. The same difficulty applies,
but with more force, to negro schools /;
for in some of the States their numbers
are much less than those of the whites.
If We desire to progress and prosper we
must have educated citizens, and toget
them We are entirely dependent upon
public schools. But we see that, owing
TO the sparseness and heterogeneous
ness Of population, these are impossi-
ble as long as we insist upon separate
schools. Now what as sensible, practi-
cal people shall we do? Shall we, by
clineing to separate schools, have the
great body of our children grow up ig-
norant and therefore at every disad-
vantage in the race for wealth and inn
provement, or shall We. by enlarging
the basis of our schools, or, in other
words, shall we by mixed schools get
good schools and thus have our children
educated and placed on an equality
with those of the other sections of the
country? The question is narrowed
down to this: Separate schools and
ignorance, with all its attendant moral
and intellectual disadvantages for the
great bsdy Of the people, whites and
blacks alike; or mixed schools and
knowledge. with oil its accompanying
advantages, with its mastery over na-
ture, and, above all, With its mastery
over Que own baser selves.
Ibis is q startling alternative, bat for
all that it is the only one. II we prefer
and insist upon separate schools, then